Development
by DragonMaster65
Summary: They've been together for a while now. Tris loves using her camera, loves seeing the photos they take together. Eric comes up with a series of photos she'll never forget. [Oneshot] [Eric x Tris]


**A/N There was a request from ItshardIknow that came through on one of the ficlets from Tales. I don't often write fluff, but this came to me after seeing the literal cutest twitter post today of a real life version of what happens here. So I had to write it!**

* * *

 **Development**

She'd fallen in love with the camera that I'd found in the second-hand shop. It was clunky, awkward to hold, and wrapped in a worn leather case. Getting it to work had been an experience, but at least it had been a fun one. Between my mom's passed on knowledge of photo sensors and Tris' determination to learn how to do something new and delicate we got the camera to be able to take and spit out photos.

It was an old fashioned design that relied on specialty paper with pre-loaded chemicals. One stack of ten had cost more than a point for each page. And the final printouts had a haze to them, an artifact of the chemical process that wasn't present in the electronic photos taken by other cameras. Tris loved it.

She wallpapered her office with photos. Of Richards and Kyle sitting by his desk. Of their damn cat. Of her friends from Initiation at their weekly game nights. And a hell of a lot of photos of me. I'm not a self-conscious person, but it is sort of strange to see myself from Tris' perspective. To see what she composes the photos - composes me - to be like.

She had photos of Chicago, too. Of the street she grew up on. The hub. Lots of streaking, lossy pictures from the train. The sun straining through the bars of the Fence. It's hard to not spoil her and order more packs of photo paper from manufacturing just to see what she'll capture this week. I had something important to save those points up for.

Tris and I had the same day off, one carefully orchestrated to line up before either of us had a twenty-hour shift and not after. I woke up before her today. Her small frame managed to take up more than half the bed. Before I went into the shower, I picked up her camera and snapped off a shot. The whir of the motor spinning woke her.

Her mouth pricked in a sleepy frown. "Th'ts going to look horrible wi'h no lighting," she muttered into the pillow. I stepped over to her side of the bed and planted a kiss on her forehead, right under her sweeping mess of hair.

"I refuse to believe you can look horrible in any picture," I insisted. "But if you'd rather, I can open the curtains to get some sun in here." She pawed me away and took refuge under her pillow. I laughed and put the camera back on her nightstand after making a mental note of how many pictures were left in the roll. Six would be fine for today's hike.

Hiking wasn't exactly the right term, but "going for a walk" didn't quite reflect the task ahead of us. We were on break but that didn't mean we couldn't use our time wisely. One of Erudite's main living spaces was going to need a massive overhaul of support beams. Scouts were checking out other alternatives in the less populated segments. Tris had mentioned wanting to see what they were doing out there. As Leaders, we didn't get a lot of free cross-training time. She'd had her eyes on the free-climbing scouts for a while now.

So I'd called in a favor to figure out where they'd verified so far as structurally sound for Tris and I to follow them through. I had to hide a grin as I saw Tris pack her camera into her bag along with lunch I'd brought up along with breakfast. It had been "our" camera technically, but, well, it was more hers by now. She stretched up onto her toes once she'd slung the bag on. I took the opportunity to wrap one arm around her stomach and press a kiss to her neck.

"Eric, you know that tickles," Tris tried to admonish. I added a second arm around her - that was tricky with the bag on but I managed - and pressed my face further into the dip of her collarbone.

"Hmm?" I asked, feigning ignorance. "This tickles? How could that be?" She squirmed in my grip for a moment more before I let her go. A spark of rebellion lit her eyes now.

"You're being awfully mushy today," she commented. We started out from our apartment, down the corridor and into the stairwell down to the southern exit.

I plastered a scowl onto my face. "Should I put on my Initiate training face on instead? Thought we'd get to just enjoy our day off together, mushily or otherwise," I said.

Tris wrapped two fingers around mine as we descended the stairs, linking us together. "No, no, please not that," she laughed. "Mushy is fine. It's kind of nice, actually. You being all sweet. Though you're making me look bad in comparison."

I threaded all our fingers together. We wouldn't be able to hold hands like this when we were climbing. "Alright then. You can make it up to me by getting dinner for us tonight," I said.

She made a face. "On second thought…"

* * *

The scouts wouldn't actually let us free climb on our own. No matter how much Tris insisted that she'd done the prelim training, the squad leader shook her head. They were scouting out one of the defunct skyscrapers. "Absolutely not. You can harness up or stay on the ground," the squad leader finally told her. The line they'd attached only went up halfway the building, but it was still plenty of climbing to look forward to.

I had to weather Tris' poor mood and biting comments for the first few minutes, but she thankfully mellowed once we were up the first few stories. The wind was cold, numbing through even gloved fingers. Tris blazed on practically unaffected as she carefully managed her line. I was tied below her, watching her footing to make sure she was picking the right path along the shattered windows and rusting window sills.

It was slow work, but it was a challenge. That's what she and I thrived on. That was why we were Dauntless. When she looked down to me with a razor-sharp grin slashed across her face, I felt that deep thrum of connection that bound us together.

"We're taller than the hospital now!" she shouted down. Her finger pointed through the blocks to where you could just make out the blue tinted windows of Erudite's hospital. I sent her a thumbs up rather than try to shout up to reply.

A few more times we paused. Tris had me climb up next to her to get her camera out, eager to document the experience. I had made sure that the case would hold the print outs without dropping them back when we'd first planned this excursion. I wasn't sure that I could juggle the camera, my hold on the building, and grab a free-flying photo all at once.

After the first time I held onto the camera, looping the case over my shoulder. Tris had the packed bag. It was easier for me to manage the camera alone. Plus it let me snap two very important photos of Tris as she climbed ahead of me.

"You getting tired?" she yelled down as I was putting the camera away after the second one. I shook my head and mimed eating. Tris nodded in agreement. "Me too. Let's see what they packed us."

The next time we passed an open window, Tris hauled herself inside rather than scoot around it. She pulled me inside, her grip on my forearm strong still even after so much climbing. I tapped my forehead against hers before pulling my second leg inside with me. "Having fun?" I asked breathlessly.

Her cheeks were red from the wind, but her bubbling excitement couldn't be contained. As we unpacked the lunches she went on and on about her thought process on the climb: how she'd underestimated how much effort it took to push herself up with her legs, what grips worked well on the different holds available on the metal skyscraper.

I picked through my lunch, searching for a particular addition that I'd asked the kitchen staff to include with my pastrami. Tris wouldn't touch the stuff, which helped to keep her from stealing my lunch on outings. "Come take a picture with me out the window," I asked her, interrupting her thoughts on how she could trade time to work more with the scouts.

Tris bounced up and grabbed for the camera. I kept it and shook my head. I had the better armspan after all. Holding it up, I wrapped my other arm around her shoulder. After beaming appropriately for the shot, I handed the leather case and camera to Tris. "Why don't you check out the photos from today while we're eating?" I asked.

She eyed the open window behind us. "Maybe in a bit," Tris countered. "When we're back on the ground."

"C'mon, do it now," I pleaded. She finally relented, making me promise to be the one to crack the camera open again to check the tiny memory card if she dropped any of the printouts. It was doable, but a total pain. And it only saved the last few shots, too. A failsafe incase you ran out of paper but wanted to take a couple more pictures.

She flipped the case open and carefully gripped the printouts from the un-treated bottom portion. They developed neatly and didn't tend to smear, but once there was a fingerprint there was no smoothing it away. Tris smiled at the picture of her in bed. It was a little dark, but I could tell it was her in all her sleepy adorableness.

The next two had been hers - skyline shots of Chicago as we ascended the building. The following ones, though, were mine. One of her climbing looking determined as I held up a notecard with a single word on it. The next of her perched on a window sill above me during one of our breaks, also with a notecard added to the frame.

"Eric," Tris breathed. I nodded for her to flip to the last photo: the one of us in the window a moment ago. We were both smiling at the camera just as she'd expected, but Tris then zeroed in on the small red box flipped open in my hand over her shoulder.

I pulled it from behind me and passed it over to her. The photos went into her lap and I could see now that the notecards had come out perfectly. "Marry me?" was spread between the pair of photos. Tris opened the little ring box and squeaked as she recognized the titanium bands seated inside the slots.

My heart was in my throat, I have to admit. This was the moment. All throughout the execution it had felt simply like any other plan. Step one, secure the camera. Step two, take the photos. Step three, _propose_. Now that I was here, my nerves were eating me alive. I swallowed.

"Not to let the photos have the last word, but Tris, will you marry me?" I managed to ask. Her thumb looped through one of the bands as she nearly pulled it from the box. She looked up a moment later as though she hadn't quite realized that I'd actually spoken.

Her expression was one of wonder and complete shock. Then, a crack came through as her mouth tipped into a smile. Relief for me still didn't come through until just then as she threw herself - and her lap full of camera, rings, and photos - into my arms. There were climbing rigs in the way and a coil of rope from the leads.

It didn't matter. Tris' lips were on mine and I had my arms around her shoulders. "Yes, of course I will," she breathed against my mouth before devouring me in a breathless kiss.

I would have to save this picture on my own. But I knew I could never forget this moment.

* * *

 **It'sHardIKnow prompted: Do a scene where Eric proposes for real. (I wanted to put this down here rather than earlier so that the point of the fic wasn't spoiled right from the get-go!)**


End file.
